This invention relates generally to methods and apparatus in electrolytic refining plants for handling support rods detached from cathode plates and, more particularly, to such methods and apparatus wherein the manual labor normally required in handling cathode plate support rods is eliminated and which permit an efficient arrangement of associated equipment in the refining plant.
In electrolytic refining plants and, in particular, in plants for effecting electrolytic purification of copper, the support rods for the cathode plate circulate throughout the plant. Thus, the cathodes are normally removed from the electrolysis tanks after the same attain a suitably large thickness whereupon the support rods of the cathode plates are then detached therefrom. New seed plates are then suspended from the same support rods whereupon the electrolysis operation is renewed.
Methods and apparatus for mechanizing the manufacturing of cathode plates are disclosed in German Pat. No. 1,188,299 and Finnish Pat. No. 46,266. The above-mentioned German Patent discloses an arrangement wherein the support rods require a manual handling, i.e., require manipulation by hand. In the arrangement disclosed in the above-mentioned Finnish Patent, the line on which the seed plates are manufactured and the line on which the cathode plates are dismounted are necessarily located side by side and parallel to each other. Additionally, the spacing between these lines is of necessity fixed within close limits thereby resulting in a relatively strict and inflexible arrangement of the equipment and, additionally, rather large space requirements.